~ Hyundai Grand i10 & Enfield Continental GT were awarded with the prestigious ICOTY & IMOTY 2014 awards respectively presented by JK Tyre~
Delhi, December 18, 2013: In line with the American Car of the Year, European Car of the Year and Japanese Car of the Year, leading automobile magazines in India, who constitute the jury of Indian Car of the Year (ICOTY) and Indian Motorcycle of the Year (IMOTY), along with JK Tyre presented the most prominent awards of the Indian automotive industry – the Indian Car of the Year (ICOTY) and the Indian Motorcycle of the Year (IMOTY) 2014 at The Ashok in Delhi, this evening.
Mr. Arun K Bajoria, President & Director, JK Tyre & Industries Limited along with Mr. Girish Karkera, Editor BBC TopGear India & Chairman ICOTY and Mr. Vikrant Singh, Executive Editor, Overdrive & Chairman IMOTY handed over the Indian Car of the Year trophy to the Hyundai Grand i10 and the Indian Motorcycle of the Year trophy to the Royal Enfield Continental GT on behalf of the esteemed jury of ICOTY & IMOTY 2014.
The awards witnessed eminent guests including scions of the corporate world, senior officials from the auto industry and representatives from industry bodies.
The ICOTY & IMOTY are the most credible and coveted automotive awards of the country. These awards are an expert and independent judgment of the best new car and motorcycle. They are aimed at recognizing focused, consistent and rigorous efforts made by auto manufacturers, with the highest levels of performance in the areas of design excellence, innovation and R&D. The awards have been gaining prominence with each passing year. JK Tyre has been associated with these awards since its inception.
It is pertinent to note that though many new cars and motorcycles were launched in the year 2013, around 17 qualified for the 2014 ICOTY & IMOTY award of which 9 made it to the final shortlist. These were further evaluated during a jury round at Lonavala, near Mumbai on December 9, 2013. It was a close competition in both categories. Hyundai Grand i10, Honda Amaze and Ford Ecosport eventually finished as the top 3 finalists for ICOTY, while the top three for the IMOTY included the Royal Enfield Continental GT, KTM Duke 390 and Hyosung Aquila Pro. The nominated cars and motorcycles were judged on various parameters such as price, fuel efficiency, styling, comfort, safety, performance, practicality, and technical innovation, value for money and suitability for Indian driving conditions.
Congratulating the winners, Mr. Arun K Bajoria, President & Director, JK Tyre & Industries Limited said, “The ICOTY & IMOTY Awards bear testimony of JK Tyre’s relentless commitment to the advancement and strengthening of auto ancillary industry in India. This is a preferred platform brought alive to acknowledge and reward companies that feel the pulse of customers and develop products in close accordance. I would like to congratulate the winners as well as the nominees of ICOTY & IMOTY 2014, who are leaders in true sense of the automotive industry. Together we will continue striving towards newer benchmarks for India as well as the global automobile market.”
This year’s jury for ICOTY and IMOTY constituted of Girish Karkera and Sriram Narayanan (BBC TopGear), Vikrant Singh, Bertrand D’Souza and Subhabrata Marmar (Overdrive), Yogendra Pratap and Rahul Ghosh (Auto Bild), Bob Rupani and Gautam Sen (Auto India), Dhruv Behl and Ashish Jha (AutoX), Pablo Chatterji, Rohin Nagrani and Kartik Ware (Motoring), Aspi Bhathena and Sarmad Kadiri (Car India & Bike India), Sirish Chandran (Evo India) and Muralidhar Swaminathan (Hindu Business Line). This specialist jury consists of experienced Indian automotive journalists from some of the best titles on sale in India. The jury members are known for their analytical skills and competence in evaluating and testing cars, as a part of their profession. The experienced jury members are responsible for selecting a single decisive winner and the voting process has been designed to be very fair and unbiased.
Congratulating the winning car, Mr. Girish Karkera, Editor, BBC TopGear India & Chairman, Indian Car of the Year 2014 said, “Nowadays manufacturers are getting so competitive with making cars that it gets very difficult to choose one car over the other. The differences are sometime almost negligible and with our kind of fair voting system the verdict can go either way. Indian Car of the Year title is a respected one and I am happy to see a car as good as the Grand i10 now wearing the crown. In our collective votes it has come out on tops as a wholesome product with that added flair that has tilted the verdict in its favour.”
Apart from the Amaze, EcoSport and Grand i10, the cars to make it to the final shortlist were BMW 1 series, Chevrolet Enjoy, Mahindra Verito Vibe, Mercedes-Benz GL350, Nissan Terrano and Skoda Octavia.
Mr. Vikrant Singh, Executive Editor, Overdrive and Chairman, Indian Motorcycle of the Year 2014 said, “This year we shortlisted four motorcycles; all at the top of their game. The Aquila Pro is a comfortable and torquey cruiser, the 390 Duke is fast and entertaining; and the Centuro is easily the best equipped entry-level motorcycle in the country. But, our winner, and by a decent margin, the Continental GT brings more to the table. It is good looking, dynamically stable, good to ride and it is well-priced too. No wonder six out of the nine jurors rated it as their top choice.”
The expert jury ensured that the voting system is fair and transparent, to make ICOTY and IMOTY the most coveted awards in the industry.
The glittering ceremony was made even merrier by a scintillating musical extravaganza presented by internationally renowned percussionist Sivamani along with sufi & ghazal vocalist Runa Rizvi and Atul Raninga on the keyboard.
Past winners
ICOTY: Maruti Suzuki Swift (2006), Honda Civic (2007), Hyundai i10 (2008), Honda City (2009), Tata Nano (2010), Ford Figo (2011), Maruti Suzuki Swift (2012), Renault Duster (2013)
IMOTY: Bajaj Pulsar 220 DTS-Fi (2008), Yamaha R15 (2009), Kawasaki Ninja 250R (2010), Honda CB Twister (2011), Honda CBR 250R (2012), KTM Duke 200 (2013)
About ICOTY and IMOTY
ICOTY and IMOTY are the bodies formed to recognize exceptional level of competence, innovation and technology in the auto & auto ancillary industries. The awards recognize the company with the highest level of performance in terms of product development, quality, timely delivery, competitive pricing, project management and customer service. All the acknowledged jury members evaluate cars and motorcycles as a part of their journalistic work and are known for their professional competence. The awards are in line with international standards and modelled on the American Car of the Year, European Car of the Year and Japanese Car of the Year.
About JK Tyre & Industries Ltd
Part of the USD 4 bn JK Organization, JK Tyre & Industries Ltd is a leading four-wheeler tyre manufacturer in India and 19th largest manufacturer in the world with a wide range of products catering to diverse business segments in the four wheeler automobile industry.
JK Tyre has a global presence in 90 countries across six continents with nine plants in India and Mexico. With the commissioning of the Greenfield Project in Chennai, the capacity across 9 plants has crossed the 20 million tyres per annum milestone in India and Mexico with firm plans for enhancement of TBR and Passenger Car radial capacity planned to meet the growing demand for its products.
JK Tyre pioneered radial technology in India way back in 1977 and is the leading Truck Bus Radial Manufacturer. Riding on more than three decades of technological innovation, JK Tyre offers a wide range of four wheeler tyres for the entire range – Truck/Bus, LCV, Passenger Cars, MUV and Tractors. The company is the manufacturer of India’s largest OTR Tyre VEM 045 40.00-57 60 PRE 4T/L weighing 3.7 tons and 12 feet high. JK Tyre is a preferred supplier to the automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers and is a partner to some of the biggest names in the Indian automobile industry including Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Honda, Ashok Leyland, Mahindra & Mahindra, Volvo Eicher, General Motors, Volkswagen, Fiat, Nissan, and TAFE.
The company lays special emphasis on establishing a wide distribution network. In India, its nationwide network consists of 138 Selling Locations, 4,000 dealers and over 110 strong nationwide network of retail outlets branded as ‘JK Tyre Steel Wheels’ which are equipped with the state-of-the-art wheel servicing equipment. It has also established 18 Truck Radial Tyre Care Centres which operate along all major National Highways on 365 days/24 hours basis. Taking it forward the company has established over 10 Truck Radial total solution showrooms branded as “Truck Wheels”. The company was the first one to introduce unique concepts like ‘Dial-a-Tyre’ and is the only tyre company to launch a 24×7 on-road tyre assistance ‘Fix-a-Tyre’ program. It has taken many green initiatives and launched the ‘Soles with Souls’ program an eco-friendly initiative to use discarded tyres as lifestyle accessory which has been acclaimed internationally.
The Company has been actively promoting various disciplines of motorsports in India and has invested over Rs. 100 crores towards building infrastructure. The Racing and Karting programmes are the breeding ground for the country’s young motorsport talent and JK Tyre prodigies like Narain Karthikeyan, Armaan Ebrahim, Karun Chandhok have done India proud in the Global Arena.
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